The Running Stitch

Michèle Santerre, one of two owners of The Running Stitch in Kanata, Ontario, loves color, which is reflected in a vast selection of prints. An 8-foot-long wall of fat quarters is a favorite of customers. While they shop, customers lay out fabric samples and patterns on a table in the middle of the room.

Bird and botanical prints become abstract art when cut into strips for Log Cabin blocks. "I was a little hesitant to cut these bold prints into narrow strips, but I like how the yellow bird print strips gained even more depth and dimension after I sewed them back together," quilt tester Laura Boehnke says. Her fabrics are from the Love collection by Cedar West for Clothworks[14].